In Sports: A enigmatic wonderment for the books:
I get ridiculed a lot for selecting Terrell 'The Terrible' Owens as one of my favorite sport figures. He currently is in second place on the NFL All-Time wide receivers number of touchdowns in a career. He is in the top five in most other important wide receiver categories. So, I assume his athletic accomplishments are beyond debate.
Many football sport commentators and analysts find Terrell to be unbearable, a disgrace to the game, and more than one have urged the Commissioner of Football to ban him from the game. They have probably calmed down a little bit, mostly out of fatigue, since the time they were at the height of their screaming fits. All this screaming caught my attention a few years ago and so, ever the inquisitive one, I looked further into the matter. I read his two books, I paid attention to everything said about him by his former coaches, his former teammates, and sought to find out who his closest friends were---that is often a clue about a person. The books were useful mostly in understanding the circumstances under which he spent his childhood. Terrell grew up in one of the poorest towns in Alabama virtually under house arrest by his grandmother. She kept telling him he was special and he was not going to get drawn into the kind of mentality and behavior other children in his neighborhood displayed. To say Terrell's world was small is to exaggerate the size of it. It was saturated with a 'us' vs 'them' mentality seeped in strong ethical terms: fair is fair, never lie, never back down when you are right, trust in God, others will always try to bring you down---but you bring them down. Early on he was skinny and shy, very shy, and other kids would beat him up for tattling on them. At first he ran home in tears to 'Grandma' but Grandma sent him back out to fight the best he could, to never give in to them---and he got pounded on a lot. No one who knew Terrell back on his high school or college teams can hardly remember him let alone comprehend how he could become the star and controversy he now is. He was the silent team nobody. While he went out for sports he was never a star or the starting wide receiver---until the starter got injured and then he did well. He developed his fitness and physique on his own. He kept his mouth shut and just listened to what coaches said to the starters. He was drafted by San Francisco 89th in the third round of the NFL draft. He played in the waning days of Jerry Rice and just watched Rice. Terrell spent all of his life, until a couple of years into being a Pro, just watching and listening. Like in a cocoon peering out at a mysterious world. Quiet as a mouse.
Who is to say why he suddenly became 'Terrell the Terrible' with the biggest smile when happy, the most frightening scowl when anyone got in his way, and a guy who loves a microphone and the stage. Steve Young, his former quarterback has said that if anyone crossed T.O. they were toast. When I looked for close friends---surprise, he had none. I guess this is not surprising because until the last couple of years he seldom talked to teammates, never hung with any of them after games or on the days off from practice. If anyone in life pulled themselves up by their own boot straps, Terrell did. He knows this, and this may be why he celebrates by himself, a one man celebration band. Maybe this is why Terrell doesn't take kindly to any coach, for some time now, telling him how to train, how to get in shape, how be a good wide receiver. It is like "I got to the top on my own, thank you, but I will stay on top on my own.' He trusts no one. He trusts his own physical training program, and feels he learned from Jerry Rice, the best source for knowledge about wide receiving. When his current Coach, Wade Phillips told reporters he doesn't control players, he assists them in becoming the best they can, it must have been music to Terrell's ears. No more "Stand up--sit down---turn right," etc. When his current owner spoke to him as some one who believed in him and respected Terrell's knowledge about his position, Terrell cried during their first face to face meeting. Terrell, in what seems out of character, at times will cry. He cries when anyone brings up his grandmother, and for one year the media loved to bring him on talk shows, bring up his grandmother and watch him cry (his grandmother has Alzheimer's disease).
To anyone who takes the time to understand Terrell's past, these media critics talk out of their ass, and are shamelessly hell bent on character assassination. Terrell is different that is what he is. Just different. He is an excellent citizen, never been in trouble with the law, stays in shape all year round, his teammates respect him even if they can't get close to him, no former coach ever bad mouths Terrell, no former quarterback with the exception of Donovan bad mouths him (I think he has stopped too), and thus these media commentators, by their total isolation from Terrell the person, ought to be ashamed of themselves. When the owner of the Philadelphia Phillies pulled the wool over Terrell's eyes with a 7 year contract worked out through an agent who Terrell just used because he was the first agent he ever had, the owner thought the matter was over---that the owner,' Mr. Slick', won, that Terrell lost, and the league agreed. A contract is a contract. Hundreds of contracts in the NFL are redone each year, the whole system of contracts in the NFL is a farce and rip-off on the fans and players. Owners can break a contract any time they feel like doing it. All the powerful forces, including vast legal teams, set out to teach Terrell a lesson. Terrell doesn't pretend to know much about many things. He knows football and he knows fair is fair. He does his job well, and his job is essentially all he concentrates on. If this is a crime, then so be it. He likes to brag, if that is a crime he is guilty; he likes the world to know when he scores a touchdown; if that is a crime he is guilty. His celebrations may be childish and not some people's cup of tea including myself, but that is no reason for him to be fined for pretending he is a sprinter or whatever other nonsense he does, since none of it is disrespectful to anyone. Certainly, if some players can leap into the stands after a touchdown, it seems Terrell can mimic this or that, and 'love me a little T.0' which demeans no one, just annoys his detractors.
The final straw which solidified my support for Terrell is just how effectively he tunes out all the hate-filled critics. He never attempts to answer them tit for tat. He shrugs it off as that is what they are paid to do---be critical---run their mouths. One does worry about Terrell's world and how he will survive without football. He is aging now, an aging bull, and his taunters are circling, waiting for the kill. I had said early on with Obama "Don't bet against Obama" and I feel the same way about Terrell, "Don't bet against Terrell". He has yet not to land on his feet. And I think that is great, for it is his detractors who deserve to end up on their ass.
Terrell's power to concentrate on himself, to better himself, to believe in himself and the things his grandmother taught him, to achieve success by being the best at what he does on the field---and all by himself---is what got him where he is today.
Terrell may be full of himself---he had to be---but to my knowledge he has never interfered with anyone else's attempts to be the best they can be on any team Terrell has ever been on. His former coaches never bad mouth Terrell including Andy Reid because the battles were always over football matters and winning. Anyone who has ever coached knows there are two kinds of pain in the asses to coach. Those who rarely do anything right and screw up because they don't listen; and those who raise hell over how to be better, how better to do things, and themselves come through when the chips are down and the game starts. You love those 'trouble makers', the team respects them, and the team wins. Terrell will never dance to those critics who demand how he should think, how he should talk, how his personality should be, how politically correct he should be, how he should relate to fellow teammates, and coaches, and fans, and oh just about anything else they have scripted in their minds. Good for Terrell. Most of us know when to pack it in, let 'city hall' win, let assaults from 'on high' change our 'dance'---preferring peace to endless mental stress. Terrell's greatest attribute is his ability to stand his ground, be immune from hostile verbiage, stand tall like a King Kong, roar like a lion, with the facial expressions of an attack dog, and simply refuse to budge, except to keep playing football at the same level. It is a wonderful, humorous show, with the fatcat fatheads getting 'splatted' one by one as he heads to the end zone in a different kind of 'smash mouth' game. When it is over, Terrell does what he always does after any kind of 'touchdown'---he flashes that biggest smile in the world and 'loves me a little T.O.' just like everything else in his life----all by himself.
Below are Terrell quotations, nothing intellectually heavy, but revealing as to where he came from, how he got to where he is at, and to me, if he wants to cheer and root for himself in a selfish way, well---I think he has earned the right to do so.
God may not be there when you want him but he is always on time.
I don't have to play football.
I feel like football players are overworked and underpaid compared to any other sports.
It doesn't matter what people say about me, I weather the storm.
Right is right and wrong is wrong.
This is God's world this is not the media's world.
“Get your popcorn ready, 'cause I'm gonna put on a show.”
“Like I always said, if I'm one of the top players in the game, pay me like I'm one of the top players in the game.”
The only people that really matter are the people that are in my inner circle.”
“Like my boy tells me; if it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat.”
“When I'm around him, he tries to downplay it, like everything is cool, ... But I'm not sure it is.”
“I'm going to work with T.O. and only T.O.,”
Lessons T.O. says he learned from his grandmother (who wouldn't let him leave the yard except for school and later for sport practice---she didn't want Terrell to learn bad habits and ideas): "When I was growing up, my grandmother told me that people were going to talk about me and get in my business, and there was nothing I could do about this. They weren't going to understand my ways, so I should just accept it. You've got to be very strong, she insisted, and make your own decisions, because nobody else can do that for you. You've got to know the difference between right and wrong and always figure out which side of that line you're standing on. You've got to work very hard for everything because no one is going to give you anything. And you've got to tell the truth, even when it's uncomfortable, even when you don't want to. Lying isn't good for anyone or anything. And if you are going to tell the truth, she let me know, you'd better be prepared for the consequences."
I ran everywhere in the hot Alabama pre dawn fog, and it felt as if I could run forever. This was a great outlet for me, an escape into another place where I was in charge of my life and could push myself as far as I wanted to. The more I ran, the more I wanted to run and the more I wanted to see what I was capable of. I was putting on weight and adding strength to my legs and endurance to my lungs. My body was changing, and people were starting to look at me in a new way. As I ran, I saw the steam rising from the stacks at the Russell Mill, where my mom and my grandma were still working, and I told myself I didn't want to be stuck in there for the rest of my life with the other people in town. There had to be something more.
I can be moody and distant when I go deep inside myself
I've often wondered if I will ever be able to find a female who could understand and accept not only what I have to do to get ready to play football but how the game affects my personality. My intensity is something I was born with, and I can't get rid of it. Throughout the season, I ache with the desire to win, and I'm usually not lovey-dovey when I come home from practice or when I'm sore from the last game or focused on the next one. My family and my agent know this about me, and they've learned to leave me alone.
The older I've gotten, the more I've been surrounded by temptation, especially when I started to find success in pro football. Everywhere I turned, there was a chance to go astray, with drugs or women or booze or violence or bad investments or many other things. Whenever I was standing at the cross-roads, I thought about my grandmother, and she helped me through.
I knew that others on the team saw me as distant, but I didn't know what to do about it. Because of my background, it always had been hard for me to trust anybody or get close to outsiders. You want to be alone and by yourself, but people don't understand this. It's not that you don't like others, but we were raised in isolation, like we had a shield around us. You have to learn to come out of this and to interact with the world in a new way. it takes time to figure out who you really are.
Jerry Rice to T.O. "At some point, you're going to have to learn to be politically correct. YOu know, give in, and give 'em what they want. " T.O: "I have always had trouble with the idea of not speaking YOUR truth. There's no such thing as borderline lying for me. I'm not going to beat around the bush or tell you what you want to hear. I'm not a politician.
When the tide turns against you, there isn't much you can do except stand back and let it go until it runs out of steam. You can't explain yourself, because the public isn't interested in explanations. It's interested in venting its anger.
Stew was leaving for Atlanta, and I was so stunned that I couldn't do anything but sit in my room and think about how much I was going to miss him. I got fined for doing this, which was another joke. Somebody had to slap me with another fine because I was mourning the loss of the one coach who'd really had my back, George Stewart.
“If the truth needs to be told, then that's what I'll do, ... If he [Reid] wants to be a man about it and have me really go on the air and really tell the people what happened, then I can. It was a difference of opinion.”
“I think some people are kind of ticked off because I haven't really said much. They don't pay me to go in there and talk to everybody and be friendly to everybody. They paid me to play and they paid me to perform. That's what I've been going in there and doing.”
“on-the-field heroics will far outweigh any off-field criticism.”
“And I told him my name isn't Reid. My name is Owens. I'm not one of his kids. Don't tell me to shut up,”
“then he needs to get his sense of humor checked.”
“That's right. That's what I bring to the table, in case you somehow forgot.”
“As you get to know me, you kind of figure me out, that I'm not as probably as bad of a guy that I've been reported to be. I'm not that jerk.”
“This is a dirty business, that is why I go out and play with my heart.”
“I'm here in camp and that's all I can say.”
“Just because I don't talk to everybody, that's up to me,”
"I'll watch the highlights every now and then but, as far as watching the game, I feel like I am the game."
"But if you look at the big scheme of things, I have never failed, regardless of anything I have had to go through: from Dallas, to the sharpie, to me getting involved with a debate with my coach, a lot of people look to see me fail." -
"I have done a lot of good things off the field but I feel like in my heart I don't really have to publicize what I do for people because it is from my heart." -
"I feel like it was a little disrespectful but you know what I feel like, I have been successful, blessed and I keep my faith in God, man, and I just keep it moving." -
"I never had any run in with the law." -
"There has to be a beginning somewhere and my thing is that I am going to give it all I got."
"You have not seen my face go across the screen for any off the field problems, period." -
"Everything that I have done that the media sees as an obstacle, I have over come it."
"It doesn't matter what people say about me, I weather the storm." -
"Growing up as a little kid, I wasn't always this size. I got picked on a lot." -
"I may not say it all the time or I may not pray as much as I need to, but I am not forgetting where I came from and how I got to be where I am today."
"I have donated money to the kids overseas, the open hand project and the homeless." -
"I wrote the book not to prove people wrong but just to get the insight on who I am as a person." -
"I've only been on one vacation ever. I just went to Acapulco before training camp."
"That's right. That's what I bring to the table, in case you somehow forgot." -
"You can hate me all you want to, but you can't stop me."
"Yes, I am a narcissist. The best, too."
Exposure is exposure, whether it's good or bad. But you know what? You live and you learn, and I know who to trust and who not to trust. I'm in control of what I'm in control of, and that's me coming in here and being productive on the field. And as long as I'm keeping my nose clean and doing the right thing, then I'm OK.”
“I'm smart enough to know when I've done something wrong, but I don't understand this. Guys are beating their wives, getting DUIs and doing drugs, and I get national attention for a Sharpie? People are personally attacking me, calling me a classless asshole because I did something creative during a game. Why?”
The criticism that hurt me most is that I'm dishonoring the game, have no class, no respect. Who is Dennis Green to say that, when he couldn't control Randy Moss? I'm disrespecting the game? I'm not the one with the rap sheet. I've never taken a play off or not blocked. I guess walking off the ball and not blocking anyone like Randy is respecting the game, huh?”
Anytime I am on the field I expect to have an impact. I just don't foresee myself being a decoy. That is just like putting Shaq on the court and not giving him the ball.”
To his Offensive Coordinator during the contract dispute, during which Terrell would speak only to his Receivers Coach and the Head Coach, while Donovan could only speak to him through the Receivers Coach: "You don't speak to me unless I speak to you first". The fact that all the coaches and teammates, with precious few exceptions, at the time or after the time of the turmoil, all speak highly of Terrell kind of settles who was right on the particulars of the dispute. And this praise includes that Offensive Coordinator, Brad Childress---now the Coach of the Minnesota Vikings.
